Jockey brand has announced Denver Broncos QB Tim Tebow as its national spokesman. He looks good in an undershirt as you can plainly see. The real question is whether we’ll see him in Jockey boxers or briefs.

Michael Jordan has had a twenty-year sponsorship deal with Hanes and appears in their humorous television ads for the company’s undershirts, you know, the ones with the “lay flat collar”?

Perhaps in anticipation of the Jockey brand announcement of Tebow’s endorsement deal, Hanes put out a statement on Tuesday about a new TV ad featuring MJ and the company’s new-look underwear.

“The light-hearted spots highlight new Hanes Men’s Underwear with Comfort Flex Waistbands which feature a softer, more-stretchable waistband that comfortably shifts without pinching or binding,” says the company’s press release.

Is there one person alive and sane who believes Jordan will pose in underwear. Come on now, the guy has an image, right?

Perhaps if they let him light up a stogie and hold a golf club in his hand, otherwise he’s not going near that anytime soon

But, back to Tim Tebow. Underwear is the last product you’d ever think he’d endorse. Although the Jockey press release makes reference to certain qualities of their brand that seems to fit Tebow perfectly. Listen to this:

“Tim is genuine, smart and driven and those qualities align well with Jockey. We look forward to building a long and collaborative relationship with him in the coming years.”

I don’t know about smart and driven but Jockey sure is genuine…at least I think. Here is what Tebow had to say: “I’ve long been a fan and consumer of Jockey, and think they make a quality product with a great fit”

Great fit, huh? Ok, get thee to the polls at my other column “Want to see Tebow in boxers or briefs?”

Used with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

It’s been a little more than a week since LeBron James went on his prime-time, hour-long show “The Decision” reared back and kicked the city of Cleveland square in the nuts.

In the ensuing days, the Cavaliers and the city of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame couldn’t rip the pictures of their new villain down fast enough, trashed the carefully preserved rose corsage from the 2007 Finals, and set their Facebook profile to “single.”

Cav’s owner Dan Gilbert took it one tiny step further, writing an open letter so visceral and incendiary that the NBA fined him $100,000, and that was for a letter written in comic sans font, not “Angry Bitch” font.

As the team and the city bid their frigid farewell to their self-proclaimed former king, the waters in Cleveland are far from calm. Conversely, after the blunt stab to the back, LeBron gave the knife another twist, arriving in South Beach a day later to meet the Heat.

The new “Big-Three” were lowered down onto a stage in their uniforms, arms crossed, with pyrotechnics display that would make the Black-Eyed Peas envious.

“It’s not a dynasty, it’s a Dyna-three,” shouted the public address announcer, in a scene befitting of the self-aggrandizing that in seconds washed away a near decade of good will James had built up.

After the smoke settled from the South Beach party for the self-proclaimed Dyna-Three, James was said to have gone house shopping and may have picked up the $45 million mansion that mysteriously came off the real estate market just hours after “The Decision”.

What does your Airness Michael Jordan, a man who stayed loyal to his Windy City and has six NBA Championship rings think of all this? Jordan was chased down recently and with very little coaxing let the world know LeBron took the easy way out, a path he would never have considered.

“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry [Bird], called up Magic [Johnson] and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team’. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”

Jordan went on the say “I’m a competitive guy” possibly implying LeBron either lost or lacked that quality.

Now that the city of Cleveland, Jordan and every blog in America has weighed in; the fact is that Cleveland, who was on the verge of an NBA title the past several seasons, is now even further removed from a true chance at its first championship since 1964.

LeBron showed a side of himself that none of us, except Skip Bayless, may have wanted to see–the self indulgent, naïve, obtuse side of his personality. I liked LeBron, I like the NBA and although I’ve never been to Cleveland, I wanted him to choose loyalty, you know the word he has tattooed alongside his left torso for the world to see. But I also get why he made the choice he did.

What I disagree with is the contingency claiming he took the easy way out. He didn’t.

The Cavs may remain viable, only because of Gilbert. Even with the fire-breathing tirade, the hallow promise of a world championship before LeBron wins one, and the petty move of having one of his company’s, Fathead, sell life-size stickers of LeBron for $17.41 – signifying the year Benedict Arnold was born – Gilbert has come out of this better than James. Way better.

All it took was 24-hours for James to ignorantly throw out all the good will he had accumulate over the past decade of his meteoric rise from high school to now.

“The King’ went from castle to outhouse after making perhaps the worst public relations decision since Spencer and Heidi Pratt got in front of a rolling camera.

Dan Gilbert Spanks LeBron James, Literally – Sports Climax

LBJ and “The Decision” – Sports Climax

Used with permission of the author.

Theo is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Marin Independent Journal where he covers local prep and college sports. As an Associate Production Manager for ESPN, he helped produce Sunday Night Baseball among other national ESPN and ABC Sports telecasts. In addition to his contributions to Sports Climax, he is a columnist for Examiner.com and is the play-by-play voice for Sonoma State University baseball and softball.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

“The Decision”, a one-hour special on ESPN is the first network program to receive our Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week and it shares the honor with the show’s star NBA free agent, LeBron James who will be making his decision regarding where he will land and attempt to become, in his words, the world’s first billion-dollar athlete.

During the FIFA World Cup game between Spain and Germany, ESPN’s ticker tape “Breaking News” announced the show that in many people’s minds is nothing more than a network handing an egotistical, arrogant overpaid athlete their own one-hour special to announce to our recession-infested country, where he will be making his 100’s of millions of dollars.

That’s great, King James, now your audience can go climb up on a hot roof and nail some shingles for $800 a week or flip burgers at their second job so they can have electricity to pay for air conditioning this summer. Hope you enjoyed rubbing it in their faces and reminding them the reality of how overpaid pro athletes like you really are.

Kevin Blackistone of AOL Fanhouse wrote this about James in his article entitled, “Free Agent Circus Stains LeBron’s Image”.

“. . . all of a sudden [James] appears to be as egotistical and megalomaniacal as any of the most self-absorbed athletes we’ve come to know over the years. What a shame. Over the past few weeks, James has made himself as easy to dislike as he’d made himself over several years easy to like.”

In another article entitled, “ESPN Defends LeBron Special”, the network is quoted as they explain the purpose of the show. “We believe this is a unique program,” Norby Williamson, ESPN’s executive vice president of production said.

Yeah, it sure is. No network has ever wasted an hour of air time for an announcement of a free agent on where he will land.

The great champion NBA players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Shaq, players who have all WON championships, something LeBron has not come close to accomplishing, have discreetly made decisions and taken their $100 million contracts as quietly as possible.

Getting beat by Orlando two years ago and again losing to the underdog, aging Boston Celtics this year, I guess LeBron can accept this special as a consolation prize as opposed to the back-to-back victory parades that Kobe and his Lakers team had, the confetti Shaq was driven through in Miami and L.A. and the half dozen Michael celebrated in the Windy City.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A night of shooting 6-of-24, just 25 percent from the floor, many times spells disaster for Kobe Bryant and the L.A. Lakers but not in last night’s NBA Finals Game 7 against their hated rival Boston Celtics.

Despite sloppy play and the hideous night of shooting from the floor, when the final second ticked off the clock, Kobe and the Lakers celebrated an 83-79 win under a purple and gold confetti shower and hoisted their back-to-back NBA Championship trophy.

The win earned the Lakers their 16th NBA title overall and is Coach Phil Jackson and Kobe’s fifth with the team. Jackson has another 6-pack of rings from his days with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

The Celtics battled hard on the Staples Center floor, running up a 13-point lead in the second half and clinging onto a 3-point lead late in the final quarter, but the Lakers battled back in an exciting final few minutes and squeaked out the win on their home court.

This 16th NBA title for the Lakers moves them to within one of Boston’s NBA record 17 and Bryant didn’t pull any punches commenting on the rivalry:

“This one is by far the sweetest, because it’s them.”

Bryant, who was off his game and attempted several off balance ill-advised shots throughout the night, got much needed support and a chunk of it came from Pau Gasol who chipped in 19 points, including 9 in the final quarter, and 18 boards. Ron Artest, who earned his first ring, netted 20 points including a clutch 3-pointer late in the game.

Overall the Lakers shot about as bad as a team can shoot, nailing just 21 from the floor over the first three quarters while looking like they had attended a Ben Wallace free-throw clinic, barely hitting over 50 percent at the line.

Stats from the losing bench included Paul Pierce (18 points, 10 rebounds), Kevin Garnett (17 points) and Rasheed Wallace (11 point).

‘Sheed, the NBA’s guru of technical fouls, fouled out late in the game and attempted to get into the official’s locker room after the game but was not allowed access by arena security.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

CLEVELAND, OH. – LeBron James was presented his second consecutive NBA MVP, joining nine other NBA players who have won the award in back-to-back seasons.Those familiar names are Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash and Bill Russell.

Three of those stars, Russell, Chamberlain and Bird actually took the trophy home three times in a row.

James’ win comes at the heels of a season where he compiled the most impressive stats of his 7-year career that included 29.7 PPG, 7.3 rebounds and 8.6assists.NBA Commissioner David Stern presented the hardware to James Sunday at the University of Akron.

The Cavs star received 116 of a possible 123 first-place votes blowing away all the other candidates. Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant came in second but was picked first on only four ballots.

One piece of the puzzle for James’ career that remains missing is an NBA Championship. The Cavs have surrounded James with several different player combinations and have yet to find the right mix to bring Cleveland its first NBA Championship.

The most recent group includes Shaquille O’Neal who has won titles for the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat. The Cavs are considered by many as this year’s favorite after winning 61 games this season snagging the top seed in the playoffs.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

CHICAGO – Michael Jordan who brought a new meaning to the words ‘slam-dunk’ was inducted into the Naismith  Memorial Hall of Fame on Friday after a career that included winning six NBA championships and five MVP awards.

Joining Jordan were basketball greats David Robinson and John Stockton and coaches Jerry Sloan and C. Vivian Stringer.

Jordan’s emotional and humorous acceptance speech included recollections going as far back as his school days as a youngster in North Carolina.

Referring to the school basketball coach who cut him from the varsity team Jordan said, “I wanted to make sure you understood you made a mistake, dude.”

Jordan started his career with the Chicago Bulls and spent several years in a rebuilding process before the Bulls went on a dominating run, winning several championships.

Here is an exclusive interview shown on ESPN on Friday.

Copyright © 2009 – Sports Climax